| Chlorociboria aeruginascens
I found this recently while out walking with a botanist. She wanted to know what the colouring was caused by, and why this fungus goes to the trouble of producing it, arguing that it costs an organism a lot of resources to do this, and in the plant world, this would only be done if it provided some competitive advantage in the process of natural selection, eg for defence or to aid reproduction.
I had no idea about any of those things. That green suggests copper or some other metal, but is that correct? Can someone enlighten me? |